Bijou Picture Palace / Picture House
Originally the Oxford Cafe
concert hall, a public house with a small auditorium above, then the
Alexandra Music Hall from 1898. Run briefly by Arthur Hubner as the
Royal Music Hall in 1899.
Opened as the Bijou in March 1908 by Ralph Pringle with seating for
around 650 in stalls and a small wrap-around balcony. Accessed via a
single stair, the hall was on the first and second floors of a tenement
block.
Adjacent to the Theatre Royal, the Bijou was taken over by theatre
owners Howard & Wyndham, and in 1901 some of its stage space in the
upper floors was converted for use as a new crush bar for the circle of
the Theatre Royal
Howard and Wyndham also made alterations to the Bijou's entrance in
1914 (see plans above by William Beattie Brown, who died shortly
afterwords in action during the war). The Bijou closed as a cinema in
1930, following the tightening up of fire regulations after the Glen
Cinema tragedy.
1950s Section
According to plans dating from the late 1950s, when the Theatre Royal was being
converted to television studios, parts of the Bijou hall were still
extant, though…
Bijou Picture Palace / Picture House
Originally the Oxford Cafe
concert hall, a public house with a small auditorium above, then the
Alexandra Music Hall from 1898. Run briefly by Arthur Hubner as the
Royal Music Hall in 1899.
Opened as the Bijou in March 1908 by Ralph Pringle with seating for
around 650 in stalls and a small wrap-around balcony. Accessed via a
single stair, the hall was on the first and second floors of a tenement
block.
Adjacent to the Theatre Royal, the Bijou was taken over by theatre
owners Howard & Wyndham, and in 1901 some of its stage space in the
upper floors was converted for use as a new crush bar for the circle of
the Theatre Royal
Howard and Wyndham also made alterations to the Bijou's entrance in
1914 (see plans above by William Beattie Brown, who died shortly
afterwords in action during the war). The Bijou closed as a cinema in
1930, following the tightening up of fire regulations after the Glen
Cinema tragedy.
1950s Section
According to plans dating from the late 1950s, when the Theatre Royal was being
converted to television studios, parts of the Bijou hall were still
extant, though the stage area had been taken over as part of the Grand
Circle bar for the theatre by this point.
The auditorium
has since been demolished, most likely when Scottish Television built
their new headquarters in the 1970s which incorporate the site.
Some of the windows to Cowcaddens Street from the portion taken over by
the theatre in 1901 can still be seen today; in the pictures below,
those windows, and the approximate postion of the 1914 entrance, are
highlighted in red.
During
work to demolish the STV headquartes in July 2007, the proscenium area
of the old Bijou was clearly visible, having been bricked up at some
stage to separate the two buildings. A rare glimpse of it can be seen
below; as it will not belong before it is covered up as part of the new
development works on the site.
Information and plans courtesy of Mike Hall.
TheGlasgowStory.com has a Bijou ticket displayed here , and a programme from its days as the Alexandra Music Hall here .
